Twenty car valeters have won the final leg of a three-year battle to prove they are not self-employed.

Workers, hired by Autoclenz to clean cars for British Car Auctions, were asked to sign new contracts designed to prove they were sub-contractors and so not entitled to protections like the minimum wage, holiday pay and sick pay.

Yet they were told where, when and how to work. With the help of their union Unite they took Autoclenz to an employment tribunal and won.

Autoclenz appealed and took the case all the way to the Supreme Court where, yesterday, they lost again.

Autoclenz has more than 2,000 "self-employed" car valeters but insists the "vast majority" have "different working practices" to those at British Car Auctions.

Last month we revealed that British Car Auction's "self-employed" trade plate drivers, who move vehicles around the country, don't get paid for travelling between jobs and can earn as little as £2.29 per hour.

Autoclenz boss Grahame Rummery - an employee, naturally - got a 26% pay rise last year to £208,000 plus £28,000 into his pension.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, said: "This is a significant day for workers' rights.

"For far too long too many employers have tried to take away our members' employment rights by claiming they are 'self employed' when quite clearly they are not."

Our Gizza Proper Job campaign is calling for more rights for people falsely declared self-employed.

Click here for the Autoclenz judgement (pdf) or here for a summary (also pdf).